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TORONTO -- Bart Andrus is confident that Kerry Joseph can be the guy to right the Argonauts' listing offensive ship.

The quarterback and the rest of the Argos offence has run aground, but Andrus, five games into his tenure as head coach, is not about to give up on the 35-year-old Joseph.

"I am not in a mode where I think he is the reason everything is going sour when things go sour, because that is not the case at all," Andrus said yesterday. "He is getting hit a lot. That needs to be improved.

"We need to protect him better. Sometimes errors occur because he is hurried or hit."

Joseph's numbers heading into a potentially scary game against the Alouettes in Montreal on Friday night aren't great.

Though he is third in the CFL with 1,243 passing yards, he has completed just 57% of his passes, lowest among regular starters. Joseph has thrown nine interceptions, five fewer than all of last season.

He is tied with Montreal's Anthony Calvillo and Saskatchewan's Darian Durant with a league-high seven TD passes, but six of Joseph's were in the first two games.

The Argos have two touchdowns in their past three games, one on the ground and one in the air.

What's worrisome is that while Joseph has been able to move the team down the field, scoring a major after getting into the red zone is rare.

On too many occasions Joseph has thrown an interception or the Argos have had to settle for a Justin Medlock field goal.

But Andrus's concerns are with all of his players, not just Joseph.

"I have concerns with him, I have concerns with our offensive line, I have concerns with how our defensive backs are catching the ball (for interceptions)," Andrus said. "I have concerns with receivers volleyball-setting the ball up for interceptions. There are a lot of concerns."